GERMANS UNABLE TO MASS ENOUGH ARMOUR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 39, 15 February 1945, Page 5

GERMANS UNABLE TO MASS ENOUGH ARMOUR

RUSSIANS TOO FAST

•Reinforcements Thrown In On Massive Scale

N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Jtec. 2 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 14. Marshal Koniev's push to the north-west, beyond the Oder, is now approaching the storehouse of German war reserves, says Reuters Moscow correspondent. This big industrial area, with its dumps oi essential material, which is located south and south-west of Berlin, is on the fringe of what was the mam operational zone for Allied bombers befoee D day. It was for_ ijp n § regarded as one of the safest industrial arsenals of the Reich. The Germans, acutely conscious of the threat, are bringing up reinforcements on a massive scale, out they seem unable to concentrate sufficient armour for a really effective counter-blow to the Russians swift advance from the Oder, inis is probably due to the: needs on the "Berlin front" and to fears of what Marshal Zhukov will do, massed as he is along the Oder for a stretch opposite Berlin. Threat to Split Reich Marshal Koniev's steadily advancing armour is Widening the bieach in another German water hue. tn Quels River, in a sensational threat to split Germany asunder south of Berlin, says the Associated Pre Moscow correspondent. Marshal Koniev's fluid front has now become an arc only a little more than miles south-east of Berlin with its

western tip steadily slicing across the vital railways and roads linking Prussia with the armament centres of Bohemia. Marshal Koniev's powerful formations which are lashing out to the west, the correspondent adds, are approaching the Upper Niesse after stabbing through the Rober and Queis River defences in quick succession. These forces are now less than 18 miles from the frontier of Saxony and about the same distance from the northern border of Sudetenland. At the same time Marshal Koniev's north-westward sweep in following the west bank of the Oder is leaving Glogau in a tight ring and preparing for the similar encirclement of another fortress, the town of Grunberg. Between these two prongs of Marshal Koniev's twin drives—a distance of some 40 miles—additional hard punching combinations of tanks, infantry and mobile artillery are filling in the salient with surprising speed. Germans in Suspense Reuters Moscow correspondent says that Marshal Koniev is still holding the Germans in suspense by giving no clear indication of the main direction of his drive toward the German "underbelly." His spearheads are now threatening to pincer Sagan, on the Bober River. Fierce battles have flared up . around Glogau, where massed Russian guns have opened up against the surrounded enemy garrison. Other big Soviet moves are under way to the north. The latest frontline reports reaching Moscow saythat the guns of Marshal Zhukov s northern army pushing across Pomerania towards the Oder Estuaiy can now be heard in the city of Stettin, while to the north-east the new Soviet drive towards Danzig is developing. > ~ ~- + Berlin reports to-night said that Red Army troops advancing along the Polish and Brandenburg border have reached an area 65 miles southwest of Danzig, where breaches have been made in the German positions#